Sports Equipment Storage

The frustrations of dealing with sports equipment storage can’t be summed up in four tiny paragraphs. You need real solutions to keep things organized, easy-to-find and sanitary. Piles of sports gear breed bacteria and smells. They also create such a mess that sometimes it’s easier just to ignore them than sort through everything to take part in your favorite activities.

Most children can and do get used to organizing systems once they’re in place. The key is making things easier to put back than to take out. When kids want to take part in an activity, they’re motivated to unhook, unlatch and the like. After a long day of playing their hardest, chances are they’ll want to drop everything and go inside.

Products like the RacorPro PXR-1R X-Rack perform this job perfectly. With a lower rack for shoes, middle hanging nets for placing balls and hooks for equipment like bats, your family will be putting back their own gear in no time. Most importantly, the next day when they want to play, they’ll know exactly where to find everything. They spend less time waiting, less reason to ask mom and dad to help them find their things, and less chance to miss out on an opportunity to have fun. That kind of positive reinforcement leads to lasting habits, and is a great way to start out with sports equipment storage.

To a degree, getting used to having a place for everything and putting everything in its place is a process. Start out with easy things, like the X-Rack first. Later, when you’re storing lots of bikes, skis, fishing rods or the like, the family will already be used to putting things away. They’ll also realize the benefits. That isn’t to say some products aren’t better than others. Always remember, “make it easier to put away than to take out.”

Let’s look at bikes. Multiple bicycles in a household cause organization problems for everyone. The last thing you want is them all dumped on the front lawn where bugs and the elements wear away at them, or crowded in the corner of the garage, just waiting to fall over and scratch your car.

Because it is such a problem, there are literally thousands of products on the market. Some of them show more regard to space-saving and design than functionality, however, or only work for seasonal sports equipment storage. Bike racks that hang from the ceiling, for instance, are wonderful for keeping bulky equipment out of the way during times of the year when you won’t be using them. For day to day storage, it is difficult enough to store your bike (and to take it back down) that it would likely not be used (or worse, once that expensive bike is put up enough times, your child or spouse may decide that walking is a much better option).

The RacorPro PLB-2R Gravity Bike Stand tastefully, easily suspends two bikes up off the ground using cushioned pegs. It rests against the wall so there is no drilling needed, and putting it together is easy. Racor makes a similar product that fits four.

The key to year-round sports equipment storage is making putting things away fast and easy. The key to participating in sports year-round is making things easy to take back down. These are things to look for in any piece of storage equipment, but especially when dealing with items that get used often.